This Figure shows odds ratios that various risk factors have for predicting CAD status. At the top, both diabetes and hypertension are highly predictive that a patient has CAD, with odds ratios of 2.27 and 1.91, respectively (p<0.001). Both body mass index (BMI) and HDL cholesterol level just miss being statistically significant predictors (although without explanation, BMI appears to narrowly miss predicting the absence, not the presence, of CAD). Finally, the cholesterol efflux capacity of a person’s HDL cholesterol is a highly significant predictor of the absence of CAD, p<0.002. (LDL cholesterol level appears to have no predictive value at all, but it should be noted that this was not a random sample; the individuals were recruited from a coronary cath lab, and many of these patients were, in fact, already on statin therapy.)
J Clin Lipidol. 2011; 5(6).